Safeword: Rainbow (7 page)

He looked at Viv. "I don't suppose you've been wanting to try a new hair color?"

"No, I haven't, actually."

"Well, we'll be buying something to use in case we need to alter your appearance. I don't think it's necessary at this time, but if it becomes necessary I'd like to have it handy. Your hair is pretty light, so that means we'll be making it dark brown or black if we need to do something."

"Dark brown, not black. I've got a dark wig. I can wear that if it comes to it."

Tyler gave her a double-take but decided to not ask about the wig in front of her dad. Probably something an old Dom had wanted her in.

* * * *

Viv couldn't believe what her body was doing in response to Tyler barking out orders and commands. She should be afraid for her life, and instead was just turned on.

As they went down the cosmetic aisle in the grocery store Tyler insisted on a box of dark brown hair color even though she told him again that she had a wig. She knew he looked at her that way wondering why she'd brought it with her, but she didn't answer his unspoken question. In truth she hadn't brought it with the idea of disguise, she'd thrown it in her bag with the idea of putting it on and doing her face up and walking in on Tyler to see if he recognized her. She had hoped when she mentioned the wig that he would suddenly realize who she was, but he hadn't.

They loaded up on groceries and snacks and Tyler paid cash for them. Then they walked next door and bought three pay-as-you-go phones, again using cash to buy them and the extra minutes. Tyler explained to her that he was going to call Mac with the one he'd be keeping and would talk about going to a game that weekend, nothing they'd be doing, but just something that sounded casual instead of ‘this is the number to call if you need us’. He asked her to be quiet. When she heard him say "David, it's James..." her heart soared. James was the name he used when he wasn't being Tyler!

They all got back in the truck and she realized her dad was really tired. She'd need to get him into the rental house and down for a nap as quickly as possible. Tyler handed her the directions. "Please tell me when to turn, and tell me well ahead of time, not as we are going by the road."

Viv couldn't resist, "Yes, Sir".

Tyler swung his head around to look at her in surprise. She just grinned back at him with a twinkle in her eye.

She was almost sure it was him now. The trip through the grocery store reminded her that Tyler was a gourmet cook, as James had been. Plus she now knew he used the name James as an alter-ego, plus the fact he was a Dom, and he had the same build. The only question was… how to find out for sure, and how to tell him.

* * * *

Tyler couldn't believe his dick was responding to her "Yes, Sir" the way it was. He needed to be watching for people following them, needed to be concentrating on details, not trying to figure out how to keep Viv and her dad from seeing his hard on.

He breathed a few times and focused. He made a note of the cars around them, and asked Viv how far until their next turn off. They had mapped the route so that they wouldn't be going straight there and would be going through a few other residential areas first so he could be sure they weren't being followed. The rest of the trip was uneventful and when he finally had them backed into the garage of the rental house he breathed a sigh of relief.

He helped Mr. MacNeill get out of the truck and up to a room. He did a quick walkthrough of the house and told everyone where they would be sleeping, explaining why he was placing people the way he was to keep them from arguing with him. He'd learned in the past that if someone understood he wanted them to sleep in this room instead of that one because he could better protect them,
there was usually less discussion to be done about it.

Viv got her dad settled and he was down for a nap before they had brought everything up from the truck and put a tarp over it, just in case someone looked in the garage. They got the groceries put away while Tyler gave her some basic instructions about what to do and what not to do, as well as what kind of activity she should make sure Tyler knew about if she noticed it. Tyler was impressed with the questions she was asking, she had a good head on her shoulders and she wasn't panicking or anything.

"You know, a lot of women would be pretty freaked to know that an international bad guy had come to town to kill them."

"I figure that between you and my brother, I'm safe. Sure, I'm a bit freaked, but it won't really help the situation any to lose focus, so I'll do what needs to be done. Right now it seems that it's your job to watch over us and it's my job to take care of dad. But, there is something I want to talk to you about, when we get a chance to talk."

Tyler didn't want to go there with her. "No, there is nothing we need to talk about. On my run with Mac this morning I had offered to leave so that I could put distance between you and me. My friendship with your brother is important to me. I'm not going to do anything to bring harm to it."

Tyler saw her make a quick decision; he wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

"Okay, let me tell you where I was living three years ago. Let me tell you about three days that happened three years ago, and then I will drop it if you tell me to. Deal?"

"How long is this story going to last?"

"I can tell it in ten minutes if pressed to keep it brief, though I could also take a whole day to tell it and still miss details. It's a pretty intense story."

"Let me put some electronic stuff at a few doors and windows and I'll be back. Then you can give me the important points of your story."

Tyler grabbed a bag and put some movement sensors on all of the doors as well as the windows he felt were most vulnerable. If anyone opened a door or window with one of these on it something in his pocket would vibrate to let him know. He wouldn't know which door or window, but he'd at least be alerted that something was up. This wasn't the best, but it was all he had with him right now so it would have to do.

He really didn't want to go back and listen to Viv's story, but if that was what it took to get her to back off then it was a small price to pay. So, he went back, told her that she wasn't to open a door or window without letting him know she was going to do it, and then sat down and told her to say what she had to say.

"I debated on whether to show you or tell you. It seems a better idea to tell you, though I was tempted to show you. Anyway," she took a deep breath, "three years ago I had a deal with the University of New Hampshire to work for them as a professor while I was also working on my most recent PhD. But once I'd taken the job I realized it meant I couldn't just go to a BDSM club and play because the risk of running into students was too great. My old club had given me a good enough reference to get me a membership at the one in New Hampshire, but I needed to find some way to go without harming my career. So, I came up with a disguise: a short dark brown wig and my eyes made up in a very feline way. It worked, no one who knew me in real life ever recognized me when I was there."

Tyler felt like he'd been punched in the gut. He couldn't talk. Couldn't breathe. Could this be Katrina? The little Kitten who had stolen his heart? His kitten had green eyes and Viv's eyes were a brilliant blue, but there were always colored contacts, and now that he looked, she was the same build and... Oh, crap. How had he not recognized her? When he couldn't get her out of his mind he had gone back to New Hampshire the following summer looking for her, but she hadn't been there. But, if she was a professor then maybe she'd been gone for the summer. Why hadn't he thought of that? He had tried to be as honest as possible when he said goodbye. He didn't want to just not show up again, he didn't want her to keep going to the club looking for him. And he didn't want her to think that she'd imagined that what they had together was special. It had been special, so very special. He had felt he owed it to her to let her know before he left, so he did. He was chickenshit for gagging her so she couldn't talk back, but it was the best he could do. He knew he couldn't have dealt with questions.

Viv started talking again. "One night I went to the club and this handsome guy sat down at my table. We talked for about forty-five minutes before he asked me to go to a one of the public rooms, said he was from out of town and no one in the room could give him a personal reference so he wouldn't ask me to go to a private room with him. He said his name was James, I asked if I should call him Master James, he said not yet, that he'd have to earn that title first. He told me that I could refer to him as Master James, but that I should call him Sir since he hadn't earned my trust yet, and one couldn't be someone's Master without their trust."

Tyler couldn't listen to the rest of the story. "Katrina, Kitten, Viv... you can stop. I know how this story ends. I need to go check on your dad, give me five minutes, I'll be back."

And he left the room. He needed to think, needed to get himself under control. So he went to check on Mr. MacNeill, saw he was still asleep, and then went to his room and sat on the bed. As he was wondering what to do, he realized he had to give it a shot. And he would have to hope that Mac would understand.

Chapter Five

Viv sat in the kitchen and wondered what the hell that had meant. He obviously realized who she was, he had used the name she had used back then along with the nickname he'd used for her. Hell, almost everyone had used that nickname for her back then, it's why she had picked Katrina, because it just went so well with the disguise. She was tempted to go find him, but he had said he'd be back, so she sat and waited.

And then a shadow fell into the room, and he was standing in the doorway holding a laptop. He walked to the table and put the laptop down, then reached for her hands, she put her hands in his and he pulled her up and kissed her. He kissed her as only Master James had ever kissed her, that magical mix of gentle and demanding. He somehow owned her soul all over again. When the kiss was over she realized tears were spilling out of her eyes and then she felt her breath catch as her chest clenched into a sob.

"Sshh, it's okay, we've found each other again. Did you know I came looking for you the next summer and you weren't there? I hated leaving you, but I had no choice at the time. I tried to make a clean break, but I couldn't stop thinking about you. Wanting you. And now I've found you and your life is in danger and I'm supposed to take care of you and there is no way I can concentrate enough to do that right now if we jump right back into this. I'm sorry Viv, but we are going to have to hold off on exploring this until the situation is safe. Okay?"

"What about David? You're willing to deal with him? Or are you just putting me off long enough that you can try to get his blessing first?"

"I'm not putting you off to get his blessing. I've thought about you too many times over the past three years. I've compared every woman I've met since then to you, and not one of them came close. No one makes me feel the way you did. I'll have to figure out how to deal with your brother. If he hadn't seen me in action then it might not be so bad, but... he has. And he's not going to like it."

"What if we tell him about New Hampshire, tell him the relationship was already there before we realized we had him in common?"

"That's part of the problem. He knows that I fell for someone in New Hampshire. He even knows how I left her, and he knows how unusual it was for me to do that. When he finds out that girl was you he's either going to blow a gasket or walk away and let us have a go at it. But, I think we should start out with your dad when he wakes up. We'll tell him that we recognized each other yesterday but didn't say anything until we had a chance to talk. Tell him we had a very brief fling three years ago and lost track of each other. That way when he sees us looking at each other and holding hands or whatever in the next few days he will realize there is already something there that we are trying to build on."

"You know, it really is something we have to build on. There is a chance that what we had three years ago won't translate into real life."

"Yes, I know,” Tyler sighed. “So for the next few days we'll try our damnedest to keep the sexual overtones from creeping in. No more calling me Sir, either, you little minx. We'll talk and get to know each other while I keep focused on keeping you and your dad alive. When the situation is over and we can talk to your brother about it we'll level with him. And hope he doesn't call me outside to fight him over you. He might, you know."

She sighed again. "He might. Especially if he's seen you in action as a Dom."

* * * *

Tyler sat down across the table from Viv, in a spot so he could see all of the doors coming in as well as the window. He flipped open the laptop and signed onto the wireless connection he found, then went into the proxy he needed and left a message in a box that Mac could check. It was all encrypted, no one else should be able to get access to it and even if they did it would be practically impossible to get through the encryption. It wasn't part of the government system either, so it really should be safe. Still, he'd given as little detail as possible.

At location okay, not the best but can make do. Shocker, remember girl in NH three years ago? I found her. Or maybe, she found me.

That should give him some time to deal with it before they saw each other. He backed out of the proxy and signed off of the wireless connection, then stood and started gathering ingredients for lunch.

"I'm remembering that you don't eat fish. Is that because of your research into them? Mac said you'd gone back for a zoology degree, something to do with fish."

"Sounds like David. My original degrees had more to do with conservation and fighting pollution, but then I wanted specifically to study various species of fish and use those with my other studies as I research how they are being affected by the things we are doing to the planet, so I went back for the Zoology degree. And yes, after studying fish as in-depth as I have, it's hard to eat them. I'm surprised you remembered that about me."